


Married at First Sight

by KaytheJay



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21806776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytheJay/pseuds/KaytheJay
Summary: Dan decides to join an experiment where he marries a stranger.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Kudos: 19





	Married at First Sight

Dan had completely given up. He'd tried dating apps. He'd tried going to the bar every night and going to New places and going to every single pride event in London.  
Meeting people was really hard as a gay man.  
A gay man who, at this point, wanted to settle into a relationship and get married.  
Which is why he'd signed up for this experiment in the first place. Some psychologists studying if it is possible to scientifically match people. Now he was standing at an alter waiting for the stranger he was going to marry to come join him.  
Why did I do this, he couldn't help but think. Seriously. Why? This is stupid. Legally marrying a stranger? What was I thinking.  
The thoughts stopped once he saw the stranger. He was very good looking, Dan couldn't lie. Maybe this could just work out.  
It seemed so crazy. This man was a stranger, but as Dan looked at him he felt as if he'd known this man for years.  
"Hi, I'm Phil," the stranger said with a smile. "Are you ready to get married?" Dan smiled right back.  
"I think I most certainly am."  
After the ceremony, the two of them headed to Dan's car to head to the real fun part of this. The reception. The two drove in silence, was desperately trying to find something to fill the silence. They were newlyweds who knew nothing beyond the name of the other. They were actually legally married.  
"So, uh, Phil," Phil looked up from his phone and looked at Dan. "What made you decide to uh sign up for this whole thing?" Phil shrugged.  
"I just wanted to do something spontaneous because I'm not that spontaneous of a person. Something spontaneous and something with some real consequences. No matter how we walk out of this, you will forever be my first husband. Either we work this out and we are each other's forever or we walk out of this with our first divorce. Well, I'm assuming it will be both of our first divorce. Maybe you've been there before." Dan shook his head.  
"Nope. This is my first marriage." Dan bit his lip. "And I married a stranger. Not exactly how I pictured things."  
"If life goes as you pictured it going then you're not living life," Phil said. "Life isn't supposed to be predictable." Dan shrugged  
"I suppose you're right."  
"What about you? What made you decide to do it?" Dan thought about Phil's answer and thought he might find his quest for love a little bit cheesy. But if he wanted this to work, and he really did, he couldn't let the first thing he told his husband be a lie.  
"I'm ready to settle into life with a husband. I'm ready for kids. But being gay makes meeting people hard. And trust me, I've tried. So I thought why not give this a go. If it fails, well I'll have a better idea of what I want my marriage to look like. If it's a success, also cool. I'll have my husband." Dan shrugged.  
"Kids huh?" Phil said. Dan nodded. "You know, I think I want kids someday too, just so you know where we both stand on that subject." At that point, they reached the venue. Dan parked the car and looked over at Phil.  
"Well here's to the rest of our lives, I suppose," Dan said. Phil nodded.  
"I suppose it is." With that, they both got out of the car and headed inside. They were greeted with cheers from their friends and family. People that were getting mixed together due to Dan and Phil's desire to participate in an experiment.  
***  
The next morning, Dan was the first to wake up. He looked over to the other side of the bed, fearing the whole day yesterday had been a dream. But no. Phil was right there beside him in bed. Phil. His husband.  
This man was a perfect stranger, yet they were bound by law to each other for what was supposed to be forever. What had he been thinking?  
He got up and went to the bathroom to shower. They were married, yes. But they were also still strangers. Dan didn't feel like showing off his strong look of bed head. Maybe a few months down the line. If their marriage even made it that long. Who knew? Maybe by the end of the week they would decide that this wasn't for them and they needed a divorce.  
That was such a strange thing to consider, Dan realized. Most of the time when you get married, you're committed to forever. This wasn't necessarily the case for them. They were strangers. You shouldn't make that kind of commitment to strangers. Yet he did.  
By the time he'd gotten out of the shower and was dressed, Phil had gotten up. He must have ordered room service for the two of them because there were a variety of foods sitting on every flat surface that could be found in the hotel room.  
"I didn't know what you'd like," Phil said, "so I just ordered a bit of everything." Dan stared. He would have been fine with any one of the plates that he saw. This was slightly excessive and very wasteful.  
Still, he had to appreciate the thought. Even if it was, probably, just performative rather than genuine.  
While Phil was in the shower, Dan tried to get through the food. He didn't want to be wasteful. But it got to a point that if he took another bite, he would probably throw up. Not a good first impression for his husband to take with him.  
Once it got to that point, Dan made sure all of his stuff was ready to go. He and Phil had decided to take their honeymoon immediately following the wedding and they had a flight to catch that afternoon.  
They'd stayed in a hotel room to prevent moving so quickly through everything that it sabotaged the relationship. Said the people who agreed to marry a complete stranger. Plus Dan's forgotten to clean up his house and make room for his husband. He was paying his friends to do it while he and Phil were in America for their honeymoon.  
"So," Phil said walking out of the shower, "what are we going to do until our flight?" Dan shrugged. He honestly had no idea. "Romantic walk in the park while carrying all our bags? Phil asked. Dan shrugged. It was as good of an idea as any.  
The two of them walked. Dan thought about teaching out and holding Phil's hand but decided against it. While they were married, they still didn't know much about each other. Dan smiled.  
"I know a way we can get to know each other." Phil looked over.  
"By actually coming up with a topic of conversation rather than sitting in silence?" Dan shook his head.  
"Well, yes, that. But how about we take turns asking and answering questions until we find a good topic to talk about."  
"Alright. I'm up for it."  
As it turned out, Dan and Phil had a lot in common. They both loved anime and video games and YouTube. In fact, in the past, they'd both thought about starting a YouTube channel, but neither of them ever actually went through with it.  
"Maybe we start a channel together," Phil suggested. Dan gave a strange look. "No really. What we're doing now is fairly unique. We have a form of an arranged marriage but at the same time it's an experiment to see if people can be matched on paper. And either this whole thing turns into a beautiful marriage or it fails and ends up a lot of drama. Either way, YouTube would eat it right up."  
"Well, now that you say it that way maybe it could be fun. I did think about starting one for years."  
"And we can record on my phone! It doesn't have to be anything real fancy." Dan nodded.  
"Wait, so are we actually doing this?" Phil shrugged.  
"If you're up for it, I'm up for it." Dan nodded.  
"Alright, let's do it. See where it goes." Phil pulled out his phone.  
"Hello internet! Phil said once he hit record. So my husband Dan and I have found ourselves in a fairly unique position. We are complete strangers set up by a team of psychologists who are studying if arranged marriages could be effective. We wanted to take you along for the ride. We don't know how this is going to go and I think we should record everything leading up to when our decision must be made. We have a year to either get divorced or stay together forever." Phil looked over to Dan. "Have anything to add?" Dan shook his head. "Well I guess that's it for this video then. Just a short little intro to us and to the channel. We'll see you in America!" Phil stopped recording and put the phone away. "I have my laptop with me that we can use to upload and edit things later."  
"I don't know how to edit videos."  
"I don't either," Phil replied. "I guess we'll figure it out together with our America vlogs. Dan nodded.  
"I suppose we will," Dan said absentmindedly. He was focused on the together part. This was going to be their first project as a married couple. A YouTube channel of all things.  
***  
A few months passed. Their YouTube channel was growing. A lot. Most people didn't seem to believe the fact that they were complete strangers because of how quickly their relationship was developing. Nonetheless, a lot of people were enjoying the content anyway. Once they'd gotten back from America, they didn't do daily vlogs anymore and stuck with weekly. By the time their six month wedding anniversary had come up, they had 100,000 subscribers. So many people completely invested in the relationship if two strangers.  
The two of them settled into a routine as a couple. They both had gone back to their jobs during the day, vlogging when they could for their audience. Then their videos stopped being vlogs and morphed into being sit down videos. Q&A's and challenge videos and creative content made just for entertainment. They'd quickly changed their content into more of what they wanted to make together.  
The psychologists that were studying them kept asking about problems they were having, but they really could name any problems that they couldn't fix on their own. A lot had to do with Phil's rule of "no going to bed on an argument." They also were being helped by the fact that they listened to each other and tried hard to see the few things they fought about from the others perspective. When they could, they compromised.  
Before they even knew it, it had come time for them to officially make the choice on whether to stay together or to divorce. Dan couldn't even imagine wanting to divorce this man. He was positive that he'd met his soulmate. He hadn't even believed in soulmates before Phil had come into his life, but he couldn't see it any other way. There was no way that there was no such thing as soulmates. Phil was his person. His best friend and husband for the last year. He was starting to feel like Phil could be the love of his life. The "perfect" man that he'd been searching for.  
It wasn't even a question. They were together forever.  
Life was their adventure. They wanted to take full advantage of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hits and kudos mean the world to me. Comments fuel me into next week.   
> Find me on Tumblr @lesbaphannie


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